270 THE ENTOMOLOGICAL WONDEES OF THE TROPICS 



joints; and in the Javanese Mormolyce,3i 

 carabidous insect remarkable for its extreme 

 flatness and the elongation of its head, we 

 find the elytra spreading out in the form 

 of broad leaves. 



The long hairs, stiff bristles, sharp spines, 

 and hard tubercular prominences with 

 which many caterpillars are bristled, and 

 studded, are a most effectual means of 

 defence, and often prove a grievous 

 Javanese Mormoiyce. ^nnoyance to the eutomologist, from 

 their poisonous or stinging properties. Mr. Swainson once 

 finding in Brazil a caterpillar of a beautiful black colour, with 

 yellow radiated spines, and being anxious to secure the prize, 

 incautiously took hold of it with the naked hand ; but so instan- 

 taneous and so violent was the pain which followed, that he was 

 obliged to return home. Warm fomentations — placing the 

 hand in tepid water — every device that could be thought of 

 to allay the itching produced by the venomous hairs of this 

 creature were in turn resorted to, with little or no effect, for 

 several hours, nor had it entirely ceased on the following morning. 

 Though the great majority of luminous animals are marine, 

 frequently lighting up the breaking wave with millions of 

 moving atoms, or spreading over the beach like a sheet of fire,* 

 yet several insects are also endowed with the same wonderful 

 property. The European glow-worms and fire-flies, sparkling on 

 the hedge-rows, or flying in the summer air, afford a charming 

 spectacle. But this brilliancy is far surpassed by that of the 

 phosphorescent beetles of the torrid zone. Thus the Cocujas of 

 South America, which emits its light from two little trans- 

 parent tubercles on the sides of the thorax, while our 

 Lampyrides shine from the hinder part of the abdo- 

 men, is said to glow with such intensity that a person 

 may with great ease read the smallest print by the 

 phosphorescence of one of these insects, if held be- 

 tween the fingers and gradually moved along the 

 lines with the luminous spots above the letters ; but cocujas. 

 if eight or ten of them are put into a phial the light will be 

 sufficiently good to admit of writing by it. 



* " The Sea and its Living Wonders," cli. xx. 



